Magicka Collection

To the west: the vast, all-powerful expanse of the Holy GabeN Empire. To the East: the notably less powerful, but still somewhat impressive Kingdom of GamersGate. Paradox Interactive have been successfully trading with both for years, but, in a shock bid for independence, they've now launched their own store.

Currently in beta, the Paradox Webshop is selling the publisher/developer's catalogue directly to fans. Well, not quite directly. Rather than providing downloads, users are given a Steam key on purchase. Still, to celebrate the launch, Paradox are offering 55% off the majority of its games.

That means cheap deals on the feudal feuding of Crusader Kings 2, the samurai strategy of Sengoku, the madcap mayhem of Magicka and... lots of other games. Sorry, I couldn't sustain that level of alliteration.

The store's still missing some of Paradox's back catalogue. At a glance, it seems that CK2's trade-based expansion The Republic has yet to dock. But the homepage assures that, "Eventually all our titles will be offered along with lots of other fun goods and surprises."

As the ice-god Wulþuz is exacting his revenge on the blasé warm bodies of Britain, it might be a good idea to sort yourself out with a game this weekend. You might get dripped on. You might nearly slip! Why even give yourself the option of leaving the house when you could be inside and away from the icy danger? You could just plug your name into Steam Roulette and see what pops up. Or, if you’re not one of the 1.8 million people that bought a copy of Magicka, then you could pop over to Steam and grab the free weekend. (more…)

Patch 1.4.13.0  Major patch today, this update addresses several major issues and crashes players have experienced, it deals with both some great old ones as well as a few issues of the lesser castes. Weve also added a little treat for you, a free challenge you can pick up in the steam store; Free Jólnirs Workshop. A big thanks to everybody who posts well described reports on the different forums. That really helps! - Added free challenge DLC; Free Jólnirs Workshop. FREEEEEEDOM!- Fixed the crash with the Magicka has stopped working windows prompt due to dependencies not being installed correctly. This should now be greatly improved. Crash of the Titans - Fixed a crash when host attempted to change level with gamepad in online play lobby. Tango & Crash - Fixed a crash when cutting the rope in the tutorial and any other physical objects in the game, while using the Which Dr. Robe. Crash Gordon. See a trend here?- Fixed an issue where players would only be able to select a few game modes when hosting an online game. What can we say, were gracious hosts - Fixed an issue where chapter select for Adventure and The Stars are Left would be empty. And though Adventure and The Stars are Left put their issues aside, they still parted ways. insert sad trombone noise- Fixed a crash in Chapter 5 of the campaign when players killed the boss by freezing him and blowing him to bits. W-Men: First Crash. Getting difficult to keep this up.- Fixed a crash when hosting online games using Italian language setting. Im running out of movies to use. Oh wait, how about Jumpin Jack Crash? Yeah, that works. - Fixed several issues related to playing with gamepad and not running the game in BigPicture. Amongst other issues, we fixed a crash caused by a gamepad-wielding player trying to write in the chat with the gamepad as well as not being able to create a new profile using gamepad but not running steam in BigPicture. You think us putting crash into action movie titles was to promote The Showdown Effect? Naaaaaah, were not that smart. *coughMarch5cough*- Fixed an issue where the main menu would sometimes lock itself before the tome is opened. Reminds me of that scene in Army of Darkness where Crash—I mean, Ash—unlocks the Necronomicon, except none of you are being attacked by the game when the tome opens. Sadly.- Fixed an issue that caused the Revive Magick to be unavailable in the Vietnam Rescue Mission. Wait, why did we change that? Back in Nam, we didnt have no fancy Revive Magick. If someone went unconscious, we carried them in the mud. Barefoot. Uphill. Both ways. No bathrobe.- Fixed an issue where the boss of The Stars are Left chapter 2 couldnt drown and ending up in the water would result in the player being unable to progress. What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger."- Fixed an issue where the Cultist Robe would be unavailable even though the Fthagn Once More achievement had been acquired. Just dont drink the punch!- Fixed an issue where some people couldnt put on their Bathrobe. Yay!- The Change Level button now correctly updates when changing language. Change is good, my mommy said so before sending me to boarding school.- Some minor improvements done to main menu and leaderboards. We didnt want to overstimulate you with major, stupendous improvements.- Fixed a visual issue with the versus map description for Pool of Undeniable Moisture as well as improving the presentation of map descriptions in general. Because maps are people too. No, wait, thats actually not true. Theyre just maps. We treat maps like people, though, and thats what counts.- Fixed a bug where gamepad-wielding players could not change robe if the chat window was hovered with the mouse. Now this one was pretty specific. I mean, you had to 1) have a gamepad 2) have chat open and 3) have a mouse hover over the chat window. Bravo to you who found this, we can barely do two things at once and three things is just asking for someone to get blown up.- Fixed a bug causing all remaining players in a lobby to get their robes changed when someone leaves the lobby. That was our version of a quick-change Magick act. For our next trick, well be making a goblins head disappear.- Improved the process of logging out profiles in game lobbies as well as the method for exiting them. DONT LEAVE US!!! WE DONT WANT TO BE ALONE!!!!- Improved focus when scrolling through community buttons in main menu using gamepad. Because a community that slays together, stays together. AWWWWWWWW. Trust fall time!

Play Magicka for FREE starting now through Sunday at 1PM Pacific Time. You can also pickup Magicka at 75% off the regular price!

There's even more free action with the new DLC Free Jólnir's Workshop, A chilling new challenge with 20 waves of blizzards and beasts. Help Jólnir reclaim his workshop from all new creatures while battling the harsh weather at the same time.

If you already have Steam installed, click here to install or play Magicka. If you don't have Steam, you can download it here.

The Showdown Effect, the upcoming run-and-gun side-scroller from Magicka creators Arrowhead, isn't just about ludicrously exaggerated shooting sprees. It's also about ludicrously exaggerated shooting sprees punctuated by the best sort of cheesy action-movie one-liners this side of a Schwarzenegger quip.

Each character shown in Arrowhead's latest trailer combines all the properties of manly action heroes of '80s and '90s—including classics such as a cop on his last beat before retirement and a martial arts master who owns an antique store—and sets them against each other in multiplayer matches of silly, speedy shootouts. My personal choice? Teacher-come-time-traveler Dutch McClone, who Arrowhead describes as "Bruce Willis merged with that other guy." Sold.

1.4.12.0Magickas menu has gotten a much needed facelift as well as several other improvements. - The layout on the front page has been updated and made more visually exciting.- New unused content is now marked with a star to make it easier for players to find their newly bought content. - The level and robe selection screens are now sorted based on availability and have been updated with availability icons.- The various pre-game lobbies have been slightly redesigned for better use of space and easier access for new players.- "The Other Side of the Coin", "Vietnam rescue mission" and "Dungeons & Daemons" now have their own lobby and are shown under the "Adventure" tab when searching for online games. - Some minor optimization and performance improvements included.

1.4.12.0Magickas menu has gotten a much needed facelift as well as several other improvements. - The layout on the front page has been updated and made more visually exciting.- New unused content is now marked with a star to make it easier for players to find their newly bought content. - The level and robe selection screens are now sorted based on availability and have been updated with availability icons.- The various pre-game lobbies have been slightly redesigned for better use of space and easier access for new players.- "The Other Side of the Coin", "Vietnam rescue mission" and "Dungeons & Daemons" now have their own lobby and are shown under the "Adventure" tab when searching for online games. - Some minor optimization and performance improvements included.